WEC 51 Postmortem: Eight not Enough for Aldo, Torres Revived

Every time I see Jose Aldo
perch himself on the top of the cage and perform a back-flip, I
cringe.

It would be an incredible waste of ability to see the guy trip,
fall, or land in a way that interrupts what’s becoming a very
notable career. The commissions might want to consider fixing that,
possibly by shooing offenders off with brooms.

Maybe Aldo is putting himself in a little bit of trouble with the
acrobatics because he’s not getting too nervous in the fight
itself. For the eighth consecutive time in the WEC, Aldo more or
less made a meal out of an opponent, stunning Manny
Gamburyan with an uppercut Thursday and then knocking him
unconscious with ground and pound. Gamburyan had no chance of
getting him down and failed to discover any tricks for getting
inside Aldo’s range. Has the guy ever even been in radical trouble?
If he has, it hasn’t been worth remembering.

Every time a dominant champion is established, the same question
comes up: do audiences like seeing a man operating clearly above
his competition, or do they grow bored if the suspense is leaking
out of the bouts? Considering the purpose of titles is to find the
best, it makes more sense that people would enjoy a clear and
concise answer. Aldo is providing it.

The follow-up: when champions are this dominant, do they get too
complacent? Anderson
Silva, with 12 wins in the Octagon, has turned in several
bizarre performances; Georges
St. Pierre walked into a fight with Matt Serra
giving him only the same respect fans did, which wasn’t much. If
Aldo ever develops similar boredom, he’s vulnerable. If he insists
on using the cage as a pommel horse, he might one day feel very
stupid. Either way, Aldo’s biggest threat in the WEC’s
featherweight division will probably remain himself.

In blitzing Gamburyan, Aldo took out one of the few remaining
challenges for him in the WEC. Grispi remains a standout performer,
as does Mark
Hominick; Chad Mendes
may have the wrestling to give him issues. But there’s no one
defining fight left for Aldo -- unless the WEC is able to capture
the services of Joe Warren, a
fairly tenacious wrestler who makes up for his lack of technical
ability by being relentless.

There’s always talk of Aldo moving up a weight class, and the UFC
could certainly provide a better living in award bonuses alone. But
Aldo is only 24, which gives him years to grow into a bigger frame
that might be better suited for the steamrollers of that division.
There are potential challenges left at 145. Aldo should be
interested in cementing a legacy in one class before rushing into
another.

Is Leonard Garcia being unkind to his own career?

Leonard
Garcia is a take-three-to-give-one kind of fighter, which
translates into an entertaining style for fans but doesn’t stop to
consider Garcia’s longevity as an athlete. Against Hominick, Garcia
winged strikes with such unnecessary momentum that he left himself
vulnerable; he was also wildly winded by the third round. Most of
his losses are decisions -- stretches of time where he puts himself
through the grinder. 11 years in, he’s one of the guys to worry
about.

Is Tie Quan Zhang a sign of things to come?

Tie
Quan Zhang, the WEC’s first Chinese fighter, put Pablo Garza
to rest with a guillotine choke Thursday along with concerns that
Chinese-bred fighters were far behind on the ground game. While
it’s still one win in one fight, Zhang’s display couldn’t have been
better for an industry increasingly looking at China as the next
big port of expansion.

Was Cerrone/Jamie Varner one of the better first rounds in
recent memory?

In a sport where grudges are often manufactured to drive ticket
sales and attention, there’s a genuine and obvious dislike between
Donald Cerrone and Jamie
Varner. And while most of these “bad blood” fights rarely spill
a drop in the first round, the two went at it like alley cats for
the first five minutes of their bout. It’s nice to see there’s
still some authentic rivalries alive and kicking.